Running for U.S. Congress
By Demosthenes | June 18, 2009
I am seriously giving thought to running for U.S. Congress in 2010. Who am I to run for congress? I’m just a regular guy that cares deeply about preserving our country. That is my only qualification. I have no party support, no financial support, and I’m not politically connected. I believe we need a whole lot more “regular” people. We really need to throw out the elite class that has failed us miserably in their representation. Following are my platform issues and my pledges. Some would say they would make me entirely unelectable, but I’m beginning to believe there is a new sentiment with the electorate out there that would support my “no nonsense” approach.
PLATFORM
- Small Government (very small)
- Low Taxes (much lower)
- Term Limits (one term only)
- Reduction of National Deficits and Debt
- Promote Capitalism
- Fight Socialism
- Revitalize the notion of Rule of Law
- Strong National Defense
- Common Sense
PLEDGES
1. I will focus exclusively on platform issues.
2. I will not discuss or debate any social issues (abortion, homosexual marriage, healthcare, etc.).
3. I will not accept ANY committee assignments.
4. I will not attempt to bring home ANY pork.
5. I will not seek a second term.
6. I will say what I mean and mean what I say.
7. I will not compromise my principles for ANY reason.
8. I will not vote on ANY bill that I do not understand.
I believe our country is in serious financial trouble and without intervention soon, it will soon collapse under the weight of its debt. We cannot continue to spend money we do not have. While we are growing our debt at unprecedented rates, we are simultaneously moving toward an economy modeled after socialist countries. On the surface, socialism has always appeared to be a better model because it implies a more equal distribution of wealth. Unfortunately, it has never succeeded in achieving that goal and it never will. It fails to take into consideration the natural human desire to excel. No imposed economic model can change that. By definition, when one excels, one does better than someone else. That is the human condition, and without it, we stop being human. This is why we built the greatest country the world has ever known and why I want to do everything I can to preserve it.
The underlying principles of capitalism are under attack. While the current administration and congress would lead you to believe otherwise, they are rapidly dismantling the fundamental building blocks that make our capitalist economy work. Under the guise of preventing what they call a catastrophic economic meltdown, the government is systematically taking steps to ensure that meltdown occurs.
It is time we come to grips with the reality of our situation. We as a nation have come to expect a consistently improving standard of living. Two years ago, the poorest among us lived like kings compared to the rest of the world where half of the world’s population lives on less than $2 per day. Yet it was during this climate, some led us to believe we deserved more. They believe we are entitled to things our founding fathers never intended. While some of those things are desirable, they are not sustainable, nor are they granted to us in our constitution. With this ever growing entitlement sentiment, at some point, the wealthiest citizens who have been tasked with funding those entitlements will no longer be willing or able to deliver them. It is then that the system will collapse.
If you want to know more about my economic philosophy, read from the works of my three favorite economists: Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, and Walter Williams.
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A Sad Goodbye
By Ender | April 22, 2009
I heard Glenn Beck give this eulogy last night on his T.V show. I found this version of it on naute.com.
Obituary of Common Sense !
Today, we mourn the passing of an old friend by the name of Common Sense.
Common Sense lived a long life, but died from heart failure at the brink of the Millennium. No one really knows how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He selflessly devoted his life to service in schools; hospitals, homes, factories and offices, helping folks get jobs done without fanfare and foolishness.
For decades, petty rules, silly laws and frivolous lawsuits held no power over Common Sense. He was credited with cultivating such valued lessons as to know when to come in from rain, the early bird gets the worm and life isn’t always fair.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn), reliable parenting strategies (the adults are in charge, not the kids), and it’s okay to come in second.
A veteran of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and the Technological Revolution, Common Sense survived cultural and educational trends including feminism, body piercing, whole language and new math.
But his health declined when he became infected with the “if-it-only-helps-one-person-it’s-worth-it” virus. In recent decades, his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of overbearing federal legislation.
He watched in pain as good people became ruled by self-seeking lawyers and enlightened auditors. His health rapidly deteriorated when schools endlessly implemented zero tolerance policies; when reports were heard of six year old boys charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; when a teen was suspended for taking a swig of mouthwash after lunch; when a teacher was fired for reprimanding an unruly student. It declined even further when schools had to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student but couldn’t inform the parent when a female student is pregnant or wants an abortion.
Finally, Common Sense lost his will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses, criminals received better treatment than victims, and federal judges stuck their noses in everything from Boy Scouts to professional sports.
As the end neared, Common Sense drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments, regarding questionable regulations for asbestos, low-flow toilets, smart guns, the nurturing of Prohibition Laws and mandatory air bags.
Finally, when told that the homeowners association restricted exterior furniture only to that which enhanced property values, he breathed his last.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son Reason. His three stepbrothers survive him: Rights, Tolerance and Whiner.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
Author Unknown
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Great Quotes
By Demosthenes | April 21, 2009
I found this on the “House of Erasthones” blog. I had to pass it on.
Sometimes, short messages are more powerful than long ones.
There are also some other great quotes by my favorite economist of all time (Milton Friedman) on the Right Wing News blog.
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Cut Your Expenses by $1.65 per Year
By Demosthenes | April 20, 2009
Remember BHO claiming he would go through the budget line by line. Well, according to the media, he’s kept that promise, but let’s take a look at the substance. He challenged his cabinet to reduce their budgets by a combined total of $100 million. Sounds impressive doesn’t it? However, compared to the $3 trillion budget, it doesn’t amount to much.
To put it in perspective, if you make $50,000 a year, and assuming you live paycheck to payheck, and you reduced your expenditures by the same percentage, you would save $1.65 per year. Wow, that’s really impressive BHO. Keep up the symbolism over substance campaign. Do you really think we’re all that stupid? (somebody, check my math please?)
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A Message to Ms. Janeane Garofalo
By Locke | April 20, 2009
Watch the first 45 seconds of the video below:
Dear Ms. Garofalo,
I consider you the enemy. When one is engaged in warfare, it is always important to try to understand the enemy. You have certainly shown your colors here, but I am more encouraged that your ideology has clouded your judgment so much that you have totally miscalculated and misunderstood me, and the rest of the people who participated in tea parties on April 15th.
Let’s see, you believe we are all a bunch of racist rednecks that don’t know our history. That you and your media buddies have misjudged us so much, only makes our job much easier. I only wish the rest of the enemy were so ignorant. Ms. Garofalo, I have a few questions for you:
Please Ms. Garofalo, please keep underestimating us.
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New Party Affiliation
By Demosthenes | April 16, 2009
I am officially announcing my departure from the Republican party. While my conservative views haven’t changd, I believe the party that represented them has finally fallen apart and given in to politics as usual. I’m sick up and fed with the Republican party.
As I search to find a political label, I find there really isn’t one that fits my needs. If I had to pick one, it would probably be more closely aligned with the Libertarian party, but most of them find religion repugnant. Since I’m a proud Christian, I don’t fit in well that that either.
So, for now, I guess my political party is the TEA party. Hmmm. It think that fits in well. So, look for a photo of me burning my “Republican” party card soon.
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Tea Party Extravaganza
By Demosthenes | April 16, 2009
I attended a tax day tea party yesterday in Elizabethtown, KY. My wife and two daughters went along too. We had a great time. Here’s a photo of me and one of my signs. That’s me on the left
Here’s a snapshot of my oldest daughter and one of her friends with Lady Liberty. Notice how sad the statue looks:
This was a terrific day for the country. Sooner or later, these corrupt politicians will get the message.
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Teddy Quote
By Demosthenes | March 23, 2009
Here’s a great quote from Teddy Roosevelt from his first message to Congress:
“The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once kindled, it burns like a consuming flame.”
I found this on a web site about an Orlando Tea Party.
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Thomas Paine
By Locke | March 21, 2009
I saw this on Glenn Beck last night. Speaks for itself.
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Liberals Hate Capitalism
By Demosthenes | March 20, 2009
I recently ran across a post at The Absurd Report that I liked. It inspired the following comment from me that I decided to use as a post here.
Liberals would never admit they don’t like capitalism because saying so is patently absurd. I doubt they would even admit it to themselves. The bottom line: liberals really don’t like capitalism because “it’s not fair” (you can almost hear the whining in the background).
The fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives is this: conservatives believe in “equal opportunity” and liberals believe in “equal outcome.” It’s that simple. Capitalism provides for equal opportunity, but by its very nature, there will be winners and losers. For the most part, the winners are those that worked the hardest and risked the most. In the liberal mind, the “losers” should be entitled to what the “winners” have earned, even if they didn’t work as hard or risk as much.
Capitalism doesn’t automatically provide for those that don’t work hard or take risks. Liberals hate that. The irony of it all is that without capitalism, there be be virtually no philanthropy to provide help to those that truly do not have the “opportunity” to succeed.
It’s funny how liberals like to present themselves as the champions of “the common man.” This idea was popular prior to capitalism because the parts of the population that were “successful” got that way because they were born into nobility. They did not earn their wealth, they were born with it and “entitled” to it simply because of who they were.
Capitalism changed much of that. Yes, some kids are born into wealth, but at least in most cases it was because their parents earned that wealth. It had nothing to do with notions of “nobility.” Yet, the champions of the common man want the general population to hate the successful ones as if they got that way only because of their ancestry.
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Dirty Little Secret
By Demosthenes | March 20, 2009
I’ve retired from two careers. One from the U.S. Air Force and another as a successful businessman. I was blessed to have the opportunity to do both. Since my retirement(s), I’ve taken up consulting, some of which has me bidding on government contracts that interest me and ones where I feel I can contribute something positive. The opportunities that interest me are typically rare, but when they come along, I like to feel like I made good use of the taxpayer money that funded the projects. The three most recent contracts I’ve worked on have dealt with promoting entrepreneurism in our community and state. All of them will hopefully yield a positive return on investment of the taxpayer funds that paid for them.
Since the passing of the Stimulus package, I have already seen a glut of offerings of contracts, using taxpayer funds, to supposedly promote growth. The dirty little secret is how these contracts are let and managed. In all cases, they are managed by low level bureaucrats that define the requirements in whatever way they want to define them. At least in one instance so far, I’ve seen these bureaucrats get infuriated because we dared to make efficient use of the money. That’s right, we turned back in $80,000 on a $400,000 grant and we were chastised for doing it. “You have to spend it all! Figure out how.” On another contract proposal, we were advised to bring in some other organizations with “name recognition,” to give the project credibility. When we told them the institution they recommended automatically adds 40 percent to all of their contracts for “administrative overhead,” they said. “So be it.”
Now, there are literally hundreds of these projects flooding the “market.” I just read a proposal for a project to “subsidize youth employment.” It’s a 30 page request for proposal, and it allows a total of two weeks to prepare the response to spend $1.4 million! In just one town. This is going on all over the country. While these projects may have some merit, they will waste taxpayer money at an alarming rate. And if there were even a slight chance the funds might contribute toward growing our economy, it will be frittered away by the bureaucrats that manage the contracts.
This is precisely why relying on the government to fix our economy is exactly the wrong thing to do.
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A New Constitution
By Ender | March 19, 2009
I’ve often thought it would be an interesting exercise to try to re-write the constitution–only to clarify the actual intent by the authors. There are many source documents (Federalist Papers, etc.) that would help us glean the intent. Many of our problems stem from people, judges, and legislators trying to bend the meaning of the words to mean what “they” want it to mean. Let’s face it, some people simply don’t like some of the rights afforded in the Constitution (the 2nd Amendment comes to mind). If it were more clear what the actual meaning of the articles were, there would be far fewer problems.
Unfortunately, including the specificity would require the use of examples, e.g., “No our right to free speech was never meant to allow pedophiles to promote their sick lifestlye on the Internet.” And with this, leads to more loopholes, because we couldn’t possibly think of all the ways people would want to abuse the “right” provided.
I’m sure there would be a way to do this, but it would take a group of very smart people, of the caliber of our founding fathers, to pull this off. I know I’m not smart enough to do it, but I truly believe they’re out there. I’m also confident they would not come from the political realm. These people would need to be of the strict constructionist camp, not the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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No Shame for Dodd
By Locke | March 18, 2009
While I expect the likes of Sen. Dodd to do outragous things, this most recent rant he has for AIG bonuses should top the list of “Politicians Say The Most Incredible Things.” Dodd introduced language in the most recent porkulus package, that effectively allowed big shots to get their bonuses at companies like AIG. What I find interesting is how he is spinning it. The package included language that prevented bonuses like this from going out. So Dodd introduced the amendment that provided an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009.
His spin? He said when the package left his office and went into the conference committee, the date of Feb 11 wasn’t in there, so it’s not his fault. Excuse me Sen Dodd, but don’t you and every other member of the Senate have an obligation to READ the legislation before you vote for it? Especially language that you specifically introduced. This is what you get when you ram legislation down the throats of Americans and don’t give them a chance to read it. You would think he might have an obligation to at least read his own amendment.
This is absolutely the height of arrogance. How dare he stand up and rail against the very thing he caused. Oh well, let’s not forget that he’s one of only two politicians that are the principal cause of our economic woes in the first place. Remember, he’s the one in the Senate that fought tooth and nail against any reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Americans….you are sleeping. Wake up soon or it will be too late to turn back.
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Big Bonus
By Demosthenes | March 18, 2009
We must be careful not to fall victim to calculated efforts to distract us. Yes, it enrages us to hear that AIG would pay out bonuses to the very people who got us in this mess to begin with, but that let’s keep it in perspective. We’re talking about $160+million, representing 1/10 of a percent of the cash infusion we’ve given them. Stopping the bonsues or getting it back will have ZERO affect on our economy. This is on the scale of a rounding error.
What’s really happenng is we’re allowing these opportunist polliticians to make their play as populists. They don’t get that opportunity very often, so that’s why you see them scramble for the camera every time one of them gets near.
The Democrats are the ones scrambling the most. They realize this is causing damage to the image of “the annointed one,” and it scares them. It will likely cause trouble the next time they try to go on yet another spending spree, and they are simply scared to death.
Don’t let it fool you. When you see the likes of Sen Dodd, boldly chastising AIG for sending out bonuses, you should automatically be suspicious. After all, it was his amendment that specifically called for allowing the bonsues to take place.
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The 912 Project
By Demosthenes | March 17, 2009
By now, most politically astute individuals are aware of Glenn Beck’s “The 912 Project.” I’ve been a fan of Glenn’s since his early radio days, even when he ventured over to the dark side at CNN. I was pleased when he moved over to Fox News and have been enjoying his show when I get the chance to watch it.
Apparently, he’s getting VERY good ratings, so naturally the critics are coming out of the woodwork. Why is it every time something popular occurs, there’s a groundswell of opposition that soon follows? Some people can’t stand for others to be successful. Most of the opposition classifies him as a “Chicken Little.” There are many reasons for that, but mostly it’s because Glenn is the antithesis of political correctness–and that ruffles a lot chicken feathers. While Glenn is clearly conservative, you can’t put him in the “Republican” category, so he has no shortage of critics from that side either.
I must say, I really like this 912 project concept. As a businessman, I see the elements of good branding in this, but best of all, the idea is terrific. From my view, it’s a “throw the bums out” initiative, meaning that if you’re following the old political status quo, we don’t need you. If we could be successful doing that, we might just have a chance at saving our country from this new radical, socialist agenda that’s taking hold.
Take a stroll over at The 912 Project and see what it’s all about.
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New New Deal
By Locke | January 24, 2009
FDR’s Treasury secretary and close friend, Henry Morganthau, stated the following to Congressional Democrats in May 1939:
“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot!”
There’s a vast difference between believing something should be true and actual truth. President Obama believes a New New Deal will save our economy. Despite what he and most media outlets would have you believe, history shows it will not.
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Chicago Politics
By Demosthenes | January 15, 2009
I was initially concerned about Obama choosing Rahm Emmanuel on his staff. Now, I’m just sick about it. I just read a blog post over at The Abusrd Report that makes me sick to my stomach. There’s just something about people who use foul language to communicate that makes me cringe. I would rather converse with someone who is uneducated or ignorant than listen to that nonsense. If you have the stomach for it, drop on over to this blog post and see for yourself. It’s a transcript of a phone call between Emmanuel and Blogo. The conversation is troublesome for more reasons than language as well. Granted, Blogo is a weasel, but you can hear the disgusting abuse of power in Emmanuel’s language that should scare us all.
A little curse word here and there is normal I guess, but using the f-bomb 36 times in an 800 word conversation is ridiculous.
It’s hard for me to imagine someone like this holding such a high position in government.
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Brooks’ Law
By Ender | January 13, 2009
In the Book “The Mythical Man Month,” Fred Brooks states “adding manpower to a late software project makes it later”. Could it be that this law applies outside the realm of software development? Or even outside the project development arena entirely? I believe it could easily be applied to economies with respect to money. I would conjecture that “throwing more money at a critically ill economy makes it worse.” Maybe it could even be refined to saying “throwing more government at a critically ill government makes it worse.”
There’s a great post over at The American Elephant about “The New, New Deal.” Check it out here:
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Proportional Response Poppycock!
By Ender | January 13, 2009
It drives me nuts to hear these nutjobs trying to rationalize the behavior of Hamas. These sanctimonious wackos actually suggest that Israel should use proportional response for the conflict in Gaza. Yeah right. My idea of proportional response is to completely annihilate the enemy’s ability to perpetrate future horrors. Nobody in their right mind believes these two enemies can resolve their differences politically.
I wonder what residents of Miama, Tampa, or Naples Florida woud say if Cuba was lobbing rockets into their cities on a daily basis? Do you really think the U.S. would tolerate that? Not a chance. We’d level that island inside a week. So why should Israel be so measured in their response?
Great piece on this on “The Absurd Report” blog.
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What Liberals Do
By Demosthenes | January 13, 2009
I was reading a novel last night and came across what I considered a great depiction of liberals when it comes to any sort of warfare:
“They buy into the theory that opposing the use of force–for whatever reason–is inherently ‘noble’ and not a gutless renunciation of the will–and ability–to resist aggression or any other sort of organized evil. As long as someone else gets on with fighting the war, they can enjoy the luxury of continuing to oppose it to prove their moral superiority.”
From: Field of Dishonor, by David Weber, Bean Publishing, 1994.
Topics: General | 1 Comment »
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